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Kaley Cuoco
Kaley Christine Cuoco (born November 30, 1985) is an American actress. She first came to attention for her role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules (2002–2005). She later starred as Billie Jenkins on the final season of the supernatural drama series Charmed (2005–2006). She has gained international acclaim and recognition for her role as Penny on the CBS comedy series The Big Bang Theory (2007–present). Cuoco has also appeared in the films Lucky 13 (2005), The Penthouse (2010), and Hop (2011). Early life Cuoco was born in Camarillo, California, the elder daughter of Layne Ann (née Wingate), a homemaker, and Gary Carmine Cuoco, a realtor. Her father is of Italian descent, and her mother has English and German ancestry. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0192505/bio As a child, Cuoco was once a nationally-ranked amateur tennis player, No. 54 in Girls' 14 Singles. a sport she took up when she was three years old. She stopped playing in 2002 at the age of 16. Career Cuoco began working as a model at the age of six, and also appeared in a number of TV adverts including six for Barbie. She made her first feature film appearance as the young Karin Carter in the 1995 action thriller Virtuosity.Entertainment Tonight. CBS. November 30, 2012. In 1999 she appeared on the CBS sitcom Ladies Man and in 2000 she portrayed former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick in the TV movie Growing Up Brady as well as starring in the Disney Channel Original Movie Alley Cats Strike. In 2002, Cuoco, at the age of 16, began a starring role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules. Bridget was the oldest child, despite Cuoco being six years younger than Amy Davidson, who played her younger sister. She had several boyfriends throughout the series and used her feminine wiles to exert significant control over the boys she encountered. After co-star John Ritter's death, the show returned on November 4, 2003, with a one-hour episode entitled "Goodbye", which was dedicated to Ritter's memory. Subsequent episodes dealt with the family's reaction to his death and them moving on from it. Due to low ratings, ABC cancelled the series on May 17, 2005. In addition to the last season of 8 Simple Rules, Cuoco had starring roles on the NBC miniseries 10.5, the ABC Family original movie Crimes of Fashion, the independent film Debating Robert Lee, and in the film The Hollow. She also voiced the character of Brandy Harrington, a 14-year old anthropomorphic mixed breed dog, on the Disney Channel cartoon Brandy and Mr. Whiskers. Cuoco voiced the character of Kirstee Smith in Bratz from 2004 to 2005. In the eighth season of the cult TV show Charmed, Cuoco appeared as Billie Jenkins, a powerful young witch with the powers of telekinesis and projection. When the sisters assume new identities during the first few episodes of the season, she keeps their secret and does some of their magical legwork for them. Billie spent most of the season trying to find her eldest sister Christy Jenkins, who had been kidnapped 15 years ago by The Triad. Billie is eventually reunited with her sister, but does not know that she has been turned evil under the influence of demons. After Christy briefly sways her to betray the Charmed Ones, Billie eventually sides with them in the series finale and is forced to kill her sister in self-defense. Executive producer Brad Kern stated Kaley's character was initially brought in as a possible spin-off. In September 2007, Cuoco began a starring role in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. She plays Penny, an aspiring actress and employee at The Cheesecake Factory who lives across the hall from two nerdy scientists, Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter. Prior to the 2010–2011 season, she earned $60,000 an episode for the series, the same as her co-stars. In 2010, the cast negotiated a raise for each actor to make $200,000 per episode. On September 13, 2010, she broke her leg in a horse-riding accident and missed two episodes of the series. In late October 2012, Cuoco enlisted the help of her dancer sister, Briana, to organize a flash mob on the set of the show, in which she and the cast and crew surprised the studio audience by suddenly lip-synching and dancing to Carly Rae Jepsen's then-ubiquitous song "Call Me Maybe". A video of the event was posted on YouTube and became a viral success."The Big Bang Theory Flash mob! [Full version compilation"]. NommiXproductions. YouTube. November 16, 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-28. A clip from the performance was also played during Cuoco's January 8, 2013 appearance on the late night talk show Conan. As of August 2013, Cuoco and her costars Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki, each earn $325,000 an episode.Battaglio, Stephen; Schneider, Michael (August 26, 2013). "What They Earn". TV Guide. pp. 16 - 20. Cuoco starred in the Lifetime film To Be Fat Like Me, which premiered on January 8, 2007. She played a minor role in the Prison Break episodes "The Message" and "Chicago", as well as starring in the comedy horror spoof Killer Movie in 2008. She also appeared in the 2010 film The Penthouse. Cuoco was named number 77 on FHM-Us 100 Sexiest Women in 2005, number 21 in 2008, and number 6 in 2013. She was also named number 28 on Maxim annual Hot 100 list in 2010, and number 13 in 2011. In 2011, Cuoco appeared in ''Allure'' magazine's annual "Naked Truth" feature. That same year, she appeared in the films Hop and The Last Ride. She was also chosen to host the Teen Choice Awards in 2011, as well as the People's Choice Awards in 2012 |title=Kaley Cuoco to Host 2012 People's Choice Awards|publisher=People's Choice|accessdate=2012-10-09}} and 2013. Cuoco became a regular on priceline.com commercials as William Shatner's character's daughter. She was the violet-suited genie in a series of Toyota RAV4 commercials, which included a commercial at Super Bowl XLVII. Personal life Cuoco has a sister, Briana, who is a dancer. Briana made appearances on the online web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries as Mary Bennet until the series end in March of 2013.Ratledge, Ingela (December 3, 2012) "Big Bang's Flash Mob Mentality". TV Guide. p. 6 She is a longtime friend of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, and she grew up taking tennis lessons from their mother Kathy Bryan. While working on The Big Bang Theory, she dated co-star Johnny Galecki for two years. They kept their relationship private until they broke up. In October 2011 Cuoco announced her engagement to Josh Resnik, an addiction specialist. She revealed that she was no longer engaged in March 2012. Filmography Film Television Trivia * Last name, Cuoco, translates to "cook" in Italian. * She was home schooled since she was in the seventh grade because she didn't like private school and earned her High School Diploma at the age of 16. * She has a small tattoo on her lower back; it is of the symbol for faith. * One of her pet peeves is when people chew their gum very loudly. * During a family vacation when she was 14, she was picked out from the audience at a magic show to go up on stage and be sawn in half by the magician. * Kaley played the older sister on 8 Simple Rules, but in real life Amy Davidson (Kerry) was six years older. * She takes a kickboxing or a spinning class three times a week. * When she broke her lower leg in 2010, the hospital doctor who treated her told her that it was so badly broken there was a chance that her foot could have to be amputated. * She once received a lot of speeding tickets and it took her roughly a year in order to get them taken off of her record. Quotes * "For me, what I really want to come out of it is to show people that I can hold together a movie, be the number one character and play someone who is twenty or twenty-one." * (on her character in Charmed) "We don't really know yet why she's a witch. She just has this power, and luckily found the Halliwell sisters. She wants to learn more about herself, but she's very naive and always getting in trouble." * "I had such a normal and amazing childhood. I’ve been so lucky. My parents are cool and normal. They don’t talk about the business and I still have stuff to do at their house." * (On being sawed in half by a magician while on vacation aged 14) "It was a bit like that scene in Dirty Dancing where Baby gets sawed in half by the magician. One minute I'm sat there in the audience, and the next, I'm lying there in the box and can hear the magician sawing through it - and me! It didn't hurt, but it was certainly weird when he spun my halves around and I could see my feet sticking out of the other half of the box and moving as I wiggled them." * "I love all music. Right now I am loving Josh Groban and Kelly Clarkson." * (on adjusting to life after 8 Simple Rules and the loss of John Ritter) "I still talk to the rest of the cast all the time. They were more like my family than my own family for a while, because not every show goes through something as tragic as what we went through when John died." * (on her first day on the Charmed set) "I was really nervous at the beginning and I was sweating when I walked onto the set with them. It was also funny because, coming from a show like 8 Simple Rules, which was based in reality, suddenly I'm talking about demons and spells and words that don't come out very fluently for me. So it took some getting used to." * (on joining a close-knit cast like Charmed) "I'd never one a one-hour show before and, while it's taken a lot out of me, It's a great learning experience. My character, Billie, is much like me on the show - being the new girl and coming in to be mentored by the older girls - and in reality, they've totally become my sisters! They listen to me, we laugh and they're just the sweetest girls." * "Horseback riding is my passion. Other than work. People can't imagine me getting dirty, but that's what I love about it." * "I totally decorated my bathroom myself. Know where I got all my stuff? Target!" * (About playing the drums) "Just 10 minutes of it and I’m a different person." References External links * Category:Celebrities who've been sawed in half Category:Actresses